On Saturday afternoon I made the most luscious, gluten-free lemon bars that are actually easier to make than regular wheat-flour lemon bars. (I shared the lemon bars with a “foodie” neighbor, who praised them, and I’m sharing the recipe with you below.) Then on Sunday morning in my email inbox were two emails dealing with the subject of gluten.
The first email was sent by Jesse Cannone of the Healthy Back Institute and the subject line read: “This is THE #1 WORST Food for Your Joints, Blood Sugar and Skin.” I was curious what this food was because I’m currently following a nutrition protocol that will improve my joints, connective tissue … [Read more...]

By Marianne Kring
Removing gluten from my diet has been one of the most beneficial changes of my entire life.
My two children and I are gluten-sensitive. My 16-year old daughter and my 19-year old son have been off gluten for almost three years now.
Gluten-sensitivity is something you are born with, and it usually runs in families. I have been having trouble with my digestive system off and on throughout my life, but could not figure out the cause. When I was in my 30's I figured out I was lactose-intolerant, which is pretty easy to diagnose. But that didn't get rid of my symptoms, which included gas, bloating, intestinal cramps … [Read more...]

On January 1, 2014 I began a medical nutrition program designed to help support bone and joint issues, including a condition in my left hand called Dupuytren's contracture (sometimes called Viking syndrome). Besides supporting bone and joint health, because the program I've started on is holistic, it will also promote general health and should produce results such as increased energy, clearer skin, better mood, better vision, as well as greater mental clarity and cardiovascular health. Anyway, I decided I will go out on a limb and track my results every few weeks or so in this magazine--because as we parents get into our forties and fifties … [Read more...]

A friend of mine emailed me an article on what to be mindful of when you talk to your daughter about her body. analgesic pills. I found the article insightful and helpful and I thought the readers of this magazine would benefit from it.
The article has been republished in the Huffington Post and I'm sharing it below:
How to talk to your daughter about her body, step one: Don't talk to your daughter about her body, except to teach her how it works.
Don't say anything if she's lost weight. Don't say anything if she's gained weight.
If you think your daughter's body looks amazing, don't say that. Here are some things you can say … [Read more...]

I have always loved massage, and I knew that massage was good for relaxing the body and for stimulating the lymphatic system to help the body release toxins, but I wasn't prepared to discover the kinds of dramatic health benefits that my teenage daughter who is an athlete experienced in just two sessions of deep-tissue massage. The following story is my first-hand experience.
Last Spring my just-turned 15 year-old daughter Julianne began to complain about pain in her lower back that came almost "out of the blue." She is a competitive soccer player and gets bumped and shoved all of the time, and she could not identify the pain as coming … [Read more...]

There's been a lot of talk about the Affordable Care Act (ACA, also known as "Obamacare") in the last several months. In this article I discuss a few points that are not at all addressed in the mainstream media, such as the complete failure of conventional ambien medicine when it comes to the treatment of many chronic health conditions. My goal is to frame the arguments in a whole new light and to address what I believe are the most important issues regarding healthcare and health insurance.
First, some background: In the mid-eighties after college when I worked as a process engineer for an electronics company I had an opportunity to … [Read more...]

By Dr. DelRae Messer
It’s cold and flu season. I can’t help but notice the majority of grocery stores and pharmacies advertising flu shots, cold medications and new vaccinations for “prevention” of sickness. It’s ironic to me that every year at the same time, we are bombarded with advertising that tries to convince us that our innate immune system is not enough. This outside-in approach to prevention and treatment has given us a false sense of what health truly is. Health is not merely the absence of disease but each and every one of our cells functioning at an optimal level. It is not merely “feeling” well, but functioning with robust … [Read more...]

While driving my daughter to school on Friday morning the local radio hosts were talking about a Mother of three from Sacramento, California who posted a photo of herself that went viral on facebook. The photo showed an attractive, super-fit woman, three young boys aged 8 months, 2 years and 3 years, and the caption, "What's Your Excuse?" The radio hosts took phone calls from the listening audience, polling the listeners about whether the Mom was an inspiration to others, or whether she was just being obnoxious. (Most of the audience was positive and polite--at least in the limited time that I listened in.) And yesterday (Sunday) morning, the … [Read more...]

...And Seven Tips To Prevent Severe Fatigue
Does your teenager always want to sleep in the morning? Does he or she mope around in the morning? Do they drag to school? Most do. It turns out that there's usually a valid reason for this behavior.
According to the Center for Sleep and Wake Disorders, tweens and teens need 8.5 to 9.25 hours of sleep each day. Between homework, part-time jobs and social activities, teens rarely seem to reach that ideal amount. Consequently, tweens and teens can become irritable and moody. Admittedly, it can be difficult to tell whether it's sleep deprivation or teen hormonal changes that are the cause of the … [Read more...]

Parents, and especially Moms, I want to talk about the tough subject of your daughter’s body image, health and well being. As puberty becomes a driving force in your daughter’s life, her self-image and esteem are sure to become a part of her awareness.
This time in her life is potentially the most sensitive and influential experience of her body image memories. She is adjusting to a new physical frame, emotions that go with it, the opposite sex, and the external forces of peer pressure and/or attention. It sounds like the making of a time bomb but it doesn’t have to be that way.
I’ve been a guide and witness to this process for over … [Read more...]